ReFED, Inc.

GOALS:
1. ReFED will strengthen the food system's engagement in solving food waste by providing timely data and insights, working directly with food businesses to adopt solutions, and building the momentum of the food loss and waste movement with actors engaged at all levels of our food supply chain.

2. ReFED will increase solution adoption by consumer-facing food businesses and food manufacturers to assure the maximum reduction of food loss and waste across the entire food system. We focus on these arenas because of their capacity to positively impact food loss and waste upstream and downstream, as well as in the broader impact areas of media and policy makers.

STRATEGIES:
1. Produce evidence and insights - At the heart of ReFED's work and impact is a commitment to gathering comprehensive data on food loss and waste across all sectors of the food system. But data alone will not motivate action toward changing our food system for the better. We work to present that data in myriad ways to meet the needs of actors from the farm to the fork. Furthermore, analysts working across climate, business, food, and big data produce insights and recommendations about food loss and waste in America through white papers, special reports, and real time commentary.
2. Seed and accelerate solutions - Addressing food loss and waste offers innovators a unique landscape for new technologies, new approaches, and improvement on existing food production, transportation, preparation, and delivery methods. With a unique view of the entire food system, ReFED works to provide resources – including financing, education, and collaborative leadership to assure promising new ideas make it into the marketplace and proven solutions are adopted by more players across the entire food supply chain.
3. Cultivate and convene the ecosystem - ReFED is the hub of the food loss and waste ecosystem, bringing together participants at all levels of the supply chain, governmental agencies and legislative bodies, and NGOs that are working to build a more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive food system. In addition to hosting the national summit devoted to the issue, ReFED builds and activates networks that solve problems and make collaboration possible.
4. Grow organizational capacity and sustainability - ReFED assures the planning processes are in place that assure long-term organizational sustainability and provide the essential resources to meet the challenge of our mission. We are setting the course for the organization's next three-years of operations in terms of leadership, staffing, resource acquisition, and partnerships that enable the reduction of food loss and waste and the adoption of solutions by food supply chain actors.

ReFED is the leading U.S. nonprofit organization driving adoption of solutions to address the crisis of food waste and is the only organization devoted full-time to reducing food loss and waste. We have assembled a team of experts that is second to none in food waste, big data, and food business operations and leverage these talents -- along with the leadership of Dana Gunders, Executive Director, who was called by CNN "the mother of the food waste movement" -- to drive change toward realizing a resilient, sustainable, and inclusive food system.

Focused on deep data analytics, ReFED has filled a critical information gap that has been stalling progress on food loss and waste and continues to develop first-of-their kind resources to enable data-driven decision making from the farm to the fork. Most recently, ReFED prepared the Roadmap to 2030: Reducing Food Waste by 50%, and used its insights and over 80 data sets to launch the Insights Engine in 2021. The Engine is the tool powering change in the food system by articulating when and where food waste is happening, analyzing the last location of food that is not eaten, and presenting over 40 modeled solutions that can help players across the food system reduce their waste.

ReFED focuses its work on three core pillars: leveraging data and insights to highlight supply chain inefficiencies and economic opportunities, including building new action-oriented tools; catalyzing capital to spur innovation and scale high-impact initiatives; and mobilizing and connecting people to take targeted action. We are the center of the food waste movement in the U.S. and are driving change across the food system, however, are increasingly recognizing the critical importance of working with businesses to make the change needed at the pace our planet and our people demand.

Since its inception in 2018, ReFED has partnered with businesses across the food system that recognize the need to address food loss and waste in their operations ― for good reason. Consumer facing businesses and manufacturers directly account for almost 42% of all U.S. food waste, and influence waste behaviors up and down the supply chain with their suppliers and consumers. According to a recent report by Climate Collaborative, less than one-quarter of businesses committing to food waste reduction are reporting their progress. And more than 35% of those with commitments said they have not started working on food waste reduction, are only in early planning phases, or have not yet seen progress against their commitments. In 2022, ReFED launched a strategic and planned business engagement program that focused on building a suite of offerings that would be seamlessly integrated into the work flows of ReFED and that would serve the needs of businesses seeking to reduce their food loss and waste.

ReFED focuses on the impact of food loss and waste on climate in response to this existential crisis. ReFED is working to reduce FLW in the U.S. by 50% by 2030 — a measure that Project Drawdown ranks as the number one solution to climate change, and the IPCC highlights as both a climate mitigation and adaptation strategy. Achieving this goal in the U.S. would avoid 109 million metric tons of GHGs, save 6 trillion gallons of water, reduce biodiversity loss by 17%, and recover over 4 billion meals. We use this understanding to drive all of our work because we know that the time is at hand to make a difference for our people and our planet.

Food loss and waste is a complex, systemic set of design problems and inefficiencies, and this can make it challenging to know how to address it. ReFED has been answering the questions that have blocked progress across the supply chain with our data and insights pillar of work. Most notably our online Insights Engine, launched in 2021, has had over 64,000 users, and over 1,000 use cases demonstrate how the tool has directed policy, government planning, business interventions, and operational tactics. In 2022, ReFED developed and piloted a Custom Roadmap tool that makes the information available tailored to a particular company. In the Custom Roadmap, a firm enters their food waste and key business data (e.g., locations, business size, etc.) that are moved into sector-specific analytics tools made available only because of ReFED’s advanced data science work. The output is an analysis of the company’s food waste and its social, economic, and climate impacts. More importantly, the tool directs the user to a suite of viable, prioritized solutions that can be adjusted based on the company’s personnel, budget, and access limitations. The tool allows users to model several solution mixes and ultimately adopt those that work best for their needs to positively impact their food loss and waste.

In addition to this core data work, ReFED has used its food loss and waste intelligence to drive investment in solutions that work under our capital and innovation pillar. In 2022, ReFED launched a Catalytic Grant Fund that provides pass-through grants to for-profit and non-profit organizations working on the ground to reduce food loss and waste. We have raised just under $3 million and have provided the first 10 grants, with another Open Call for restaurant solutions slated for later in 2023. We also educate investors through our Food Waste Funder Circle that has grown to 159 vetted members in just a year.

In the final pillar of our work -- stakeholder engagement -- we host the annual Food Waste Solutions Summit. Our 2023 event was the largest and most comprehensive ever, with over 650 in attendance and sessions covering all facets of food loss and waste. We also host the Food Waste Action Network with 1,100 members, and are a leading member of the policy-focused Zero Food Waste Coalition.